Lea Waters, PhD

​Lea Waters, PhD is a professor, published author, psychologist, internationally-celebrated speaker and one of the world’s leading experts on Positive Education, Positive Organizations and Strength-Based Parenting and Teaching.

Positive Psychology Expert & Educator

Professor Waters is the Founding Director and Inaugural Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne where she has held an academic position for more than 23 years. Lea holds affiliate positions at Cambridge University and the University of Michigan and serves on the Scientific Board at Berkeley University’s Greater Good Science Center. Lea is the 2017-2019 President of the International Positive Psychology Association, serves on the Council of Happiness and Education for the World Happiness Council, is the Patron of Flourishing Education Japan and Ambassador for the Positive Education Schools Association. She is a registered psychologist (AHPRA) and a full member of the Australian Psychological Society

In 2015, Professor Waters was listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review and Westpac Bank. She has been listed in the Marques ‘Who’s Who in the World’ since 2009 and was included in the 2017 edition of Who's Who of Australian Women.

Accolades & Awards

Lea was inducted as a Fellow of the International Positive Psychology Association and is the only Australian to be inducted (2015). She was named the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Educator of the Year (2004), received an Australian University Individual Teaching Excellence Award from (2007), was awarded the Teaching Excellence Award by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education (2011) and received a team Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Government’s Office for Teaching and Learning (2013).

Lea's goal is to help people thriveusing the science of positive psychology

Speaker & Media Expert

Lea is committed to spreading the science of positive psychology as widely as possible and has been featured on Morning Dose (The CW, Dallas, TX, USA), Revolution School (ABC, Australia), Matter of Fact (ABC, Australia), Destination Happiness (Channel Nine, Australia), Today Extra (Channel Nine, Australia), National Nightly News (Channel Ten, Australia), The Project (TV3, New Zealand), The Café (NZTV, New Zealand), Breakfast (NZTV, New Zealand). Lea is also frequently featured in print media, including The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Globe (Toronto), The Guardian (UK), and The Age (Australia). Lea’s TEDx talk, Warning: Being positive is not for the faint hearted! explores how small positive steps can make a big impact on the wellbeing of ourselves and others, has been viewed more than 118,000 times.

Programs & Projects

Lea is the founder of Visible Wellbeing, an initiative that brings the science of wellbeing and learning to schools. Visible Wellbeing is being used in schools across Australia, Asia, Canada, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates. Her newest program, The Strengths Switch, offers parents and educators free resources, online courses, and facilitated courses to better build the strengths of families across the globe.